I want to start things off with thanking Michael R. Fletcher for his guest-post last week! It was an honor having one of my favorite authors appear on my little blog and I hope I get to do similar things with other authors in the future.

So, for you that missed it (https://thereisnomuse.com/2015/11/25/michael-r-fletcher-guest-post/), Michael talked about music and writing in his post, and I will continue on the same subject today. A funny side note is that Iron Maiden will be mentioned by me as well.

Before I go any further, I have a confession to make: I almost exclusively listen to what is considered “epic” music. I have a playlist called EPIC/EMOTIONAL  on Spotify, with just about 1100 songs (https://open.spotify.com/user/sadirsamir/playlist/1mjGNelark9CF7thITvNXU). You might think that this is weird, and I don’t blame you if you do. I often find myself thinking “what would people say if they knew what was playing in my headphones right now” while commuting on the train every day.

I have found that my imagination is deeply connected to this sort of music, and while I listen to it, my mind shuts everything else out. It’s like a portal that takes me straight to Al Alem (the world in my novel), and images begin to flash before my eyes. I have one track, that I can’t reveal unfortunately, that is the main theme for one of my characters. When I listened to it, everything fell into place. It was hearing that song, that I knew what destiny awaited this particular character.

I have mentioned this earlier, but one thing that I really love, is getting those goose bumps when experiencing something really awesome. The trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a perfect example of this. Every time I watch the footage on my screen, the same result happens: excitement, happiness, and so on. The music in the trailer plays a HUGE part in achieving this feeling.

Very rarely, I can get affected by lyrics in a song. I remember a few years back (when I was on the train), listening to Iron Maiden, when the song “The Wicker Man” came on. During the duration of that track, a character was born in my head. This character plays a big part in my novel I’m writing today.

When I’m writing a specific scene, I try and find a song that fits that scene specifically. This can take some time to find, but when I do, it’s amazing. I make that track go on repeat until I finish the scene. A recent example of this is the song “A Lannister Always Pays His Debts” from the season 3 soundtrack for Game of Thrones.

If anyone is curious, I mostly listen to rock, metal or electric music when  I find my brain too tired from thinking.